Rant

President Obama is said to read ten letters from the public each day. I really hope he reads mine today, but I invite you to send one, too, increasing the odds that gun violence and control stays top of mind, all day, every day, until we see progress. Here’s the letter I sent President Obama. […]

It started off as a rather routine argument about when it would be ok to start hanging out with his friends more when we came up with a revolutionary idea. You see, my husband has been almost saintlike in both his get-home-from-work-at-sixness and his willing-to-let-me-go-outness since we had our second baby. He really wants me […]

I hope I’m not the first person to tell you that your baby won’t remember Christmas. Maybe your mom or mother-in-law tried to tell you this but they probably just sounded annoying, right? Save your money and your stress, Mama. This hilarious post on the Ugly Volvo reminds us that all your crawler really wants […]

I love Amazon, and so does my husband. He is all about efficiency and setting things up to take care of themselves. We never run out of vitamins, toothpaste, or hair product, thanks to whatever he does on Amazon. I have a more flexible schedule, so while I’m more likely to pick up toilet paper […]

I have one overarching piece of advice for you: Standardize, standardize, standardize! Though any controlling and freaky parent will want to know that she is using the absolute best brand of drinking cup perfectly suited to the environment and the ergonomic shape of a child’s mouth that will never leak… I just want you to buy four of the […]

There are so many aspects of being a parent to contemplate. For example, the concept of being a “mom in the world.” How will you, as a mother, act in the world? How will you treat other people’s children? I had to face these big questions when we completed Rookie Moms challenge #32: Patronize your bookstore’s […]

Step One: Get someone else to do it. There. I said it. I hate this phase of parenting so much, I wish I could outsource potty training my child altogether. Control freaks like things done on their timelines. Potty training doesn’t work that way. I’m so grateful that the peer pressure potty training technique of my […]

I am an Industrial Engineer by training. If you think that makes me a laid-back parent, you are wrong. I often obsess about the exact right solution to any given parenting challenge (many of which you would not even recognize as problems, I’m told). Whitney asked me to share my overly specific recommendations for grocery shopping […]

When my friend, a fellow new mom, told me that she gave up complaining for Lent, I thought she was a genius. So, instead of complaining about how my child was sleeping, I simply talked nonstop about it. Eventually, I had completely exhausted and bored myself talking about Weston’s sleep patterns, so I thought it […]